The present invention relates to restraints and, more particularly, to a restraint employed to restrict the movement of infants and small children.
Child restraints long have been in use to confine infants and small children to a desired area, or to prevent them from wandering into areas in which they are not permitted. Commonly, the gates are mounted within accessways, that is doorways or passageways, or at the top or bottom of stairs.
A child or infant restraint should satisfy at least two requirements. First, by blocking or impeding the passage of an infant or child through the accessway, the restraint also significantly impedes passage of an adult. If the restraint can be relatively easily removed from the accessway, the restraint can be removed to allow the adult to pass, and then remounted. However, a better solution is provided if the restraint includes a barrier or gate that can be opened to permit passage without removing the restraint entirely from the accessway. Second, if the gate can be disengaged and opened to permit passage through the accessway without removing the restraint entirely, it is important to be able to secure the gate in the closed position with a fastener or locking mechanism that is difficult for infants and children to open. However, an adult must be able to open the barrier quickly and easily and, therefore, the fastener should be easily and quickly operable by an adult.
It is also helpful if the gate satisfies two additional requirements. During a typical day in the home, the parent attending a child commonly needs to confine the child to the area occupied by the parent. Since that area changes throughout the home during a typical day, the area in which the child is confined changes. Since the child restraint is an integral component of the means used to confine the area of movement of the child, the parent should be able to move the restraint from accessway to accessway as the day progresses. Therefore, it should be easy to mount the restraint within and remove the restraint from an accessway. Also, accessways within a typical home can be of different widths. Therefore, it should be easy to adjust the width of the restraint.
None of the known restraints includes a gate that can be quickly and easily opened and closed by an adult, but which is difficult for a child to open. Further, none of the known restraints can meet those requirements while providing a restraint whose width is easily adjustable and that can be easily and quickly mounted within and removed from an accessway. Known restraints commonly include a barrier or gate that can be positioned in the accessway to block it, a mounting by which the restraint can be secured within the accessway and a fastener or locking mechanism that is provided to prevent children and infants from retracting the gate. The gate can be extended and retracted in a number of ways. Commonly, the gate can be folded or collapsed against one side of the accessway to permit passage, and extended to a locking mechanism mounted to the remaining side of the accessway. Another type of restraint forms a gate consisting of a pair of partitions that can be slid along each other to increase or reduce the width spanned by the gate. Still other gates are mounted on spring biased telescoping rods which can be compressed or allowed to expand to adapt the gate to different sized accessways. Other restraints include gates that are hinge mounted to one side of the accessway to allow the gate to swing between opened and closed positions.